CBS under fire for withholding Obama's Benghazi remarks

11/5/12 4:00 PM EST

CBS News is continuing to draw fire for withholding footage of a Sept. 12 interview with President Barack Obama in which he said it was "too early to tell" whether or not the previous day's attack in Benghazi, Libya, had been an act of terror.

That remark, which was not included in the "60 Minutes" package that first aired on Sept. 23, was also left out of a subsequent package that aired in the days following the second presidential debate, when President Obama said that he had called the attack "an act of terror" in his Rose Garden address on Sept. 12, which took place before the interview. The remark was not released until yesterday, a fact Bret Baier of Fox News called attention to earlier today.

In interviews with POLITICO, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said CBS had been "explicitly misleading" in order "to protect President Obama." Former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said he was "dumbstruck" by the network's decision not to report on such a newsworthy item. On Fox News, Sen. John McCain said CBS was "not carrying out their responsibilities of informing the American people," while conservative columnist Byron York wrote on Twitter that the network had "a scandal on their hands."

Meanwhile, sources at rival television networks, who declined to speak on the record, expressed confusion over CBS's decision.

"It's surprising they held on to any of it," one source said. "If [we had the interview], we would've put that stuff out the second it became news -- again -- after the debate. All of it."

CBS News spokesperson Sonya McNair did not rebut the version of events as laid out by Baier.

“We’re proud of our Benghazi coverage, which from Libya to Washington has been the most comprehensive original reporting of any network," McNair told POLITICO. She also provided a timeline of events, including the network's coverage..

(The veracity of McNair's assertion that CBS has had "the most comprehensive original reporting" is a matter of debate. Fox News reporters, chiefly Jennifer Griffin, have done a significant amount of original reporting, much of which has led to new revelations and important developments in what we know about the security situation surrounding the attack.)

In the interview conducted on Sept. 12, Steve Kroft of "60 Minutes" asked the president about his remarks in the Rose Garden: "Mr. President, this morning you went out of your way to avoid the use of the word terrorism in connection with the Libya Attack, do you believe that this was a terrorism attack?," Kroft asked.

"Well it’s too early to tell exactly how this came about, what group was involved, but obviously it was an attack on Americans," Obama said.

Confusion over when Obama called the attack an "act of terror" was one of the most significant moments of the second presidential debate on Oct. 16. But when CBS aired footage of the interview three days later, they omitted the aforementioned exchange from the package.

"The thing that is most egregious about CBS is that they edited out the part of the interview that would have undermined him after the second debate," Gingrich told POLITICO. "The first question is why did they release it? Once they had decided not to air it, the decision to release it just before the election is weird. What was the decision process at CBS? The second question is, why didn't they decide to release it after the debate? They only released half of his remarks, which was explicitly misleading."

"I used to think the first bias of the press was a bias in favor of conflict," Fleischer said. "It's astounding that CBS would sit on this instead of releasing it the morning after the second debate when the major focus was on Benghazi and whether or not the president declared it an act of terror.... I think somebody smart at CBS figured out, if we don't release it today, before the election, we'll be in huge trouble. But what I don't understand is: What were they trying to avoid? What were they trying to keep quiet? It violates every instinct journalists have."

It should be noted that the exchange in questions does not directly contradict the president's remarks at the second debate. Specifically, the president said that he "stood in the Rose Garden, and I told the American people and the world that we are going to find out exactly what happened, that this was an act of terror."

The fact that President Obama then told Kroft it was "too soon to tell" if it was an act of terror is, however, relevant to say the least.

There are various reasons that CBS could have withheld the footage, including editorial oversight. But until they provide further comment, it is difficult to ascertain what those reasons were.

But Speaker Gingrich, a veteran critic of the "elite media," and Sen. McCain both saw it as an attempt by the network to protect the president.

"This is part of the elite media's extraordinary protection of Barack Obama and I think it's the most distorted journalism in modern times," Gingrich said.

“This is not the first action of this nature by a major network, but it is what it is," said Sen. McCain. "It's in their DNA."